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  3. What Is the Paperless Office ? It became a classic example of a techno-Utopian prophecy becoming faulty. The notion of the "

What Is the Paperless Office ? It became a classic example of a techno-Utopian prophecy becoming faulty. The notion of the "

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问题                     What Is the Paperless Office ?
    It became a classic example of a techno-Utopian prophecy becoming faulty. The notion of the "paperless office", which dates back to the 1960s, sounded plausible enough. As computers began to spread and display technology improved, it seemed obvious that more and more documents would be written, distributed and read in electronic form, rather than on paper.
    What actually happened was that global consumption of office paper more than doubled in the last two decades of the 20th century, as digital technology made printing cheaper and easier than ever before. Not even the rise of the internet stemmed the tide. The web’s billions of pages provided a vast new source of fodder for the world’s humming printers. Although E-mail did away with much paper-based correspondence, some older, bosses who fears technology insisted on having their E-mails printed out so they could scribble their responses in pen for their secretaries to type in and send off.
    Yet the prediction seems to be coming true at last. American office workers’ use of paper has actually been in decline since 2001. What changed? The explanation seems to be sociological rather than technological. A new generation of workers, who have grown up with e-mail, word processing and the internet, feel less of a need to print documents out than their older colleagues did. Offices are still far from paperless, but the trend is clear. So does this mean that other apparently discredited technological prophecies might also benefit from a similar reversal of fortune?
    A closer look at the ones that have staged comebacks suggests three ways in which they could. The paperless office shows how a sociological shift can make the difference: although the technology did not change very much, its users did. In some cases, however, straightforward improvements in technology turn things around. As broadband grew, many predictions made during the boom—about the value of online advertising and the volume of e-commerce, for example—came true after all, albeit a few years late.
    A third way in which seemingly dying technologies can be revived is through an external shock. Perhaps the best example is the electric car. Growing concern about climate change, worries about energy security and a spike in the oil price have since effected an astonishing turnaround. Carmakers are now racing to build petrol-electric hybrid vehicles, and these are widely seen as steps on the way to all-electric ones.
What can we learn from the fourth paragraph?
选项 A、Great improvement in technology will change social trend.
B、Sociological factors count more than technological ones.
C、It is the users of technology who have the final say.
D、It is never too late for the prophecies to come back.
答案A
解析 事实细节题。根据题干关键词定位到原文第四段。第四段共提到两种技术起死回生的方法。一是：although the technology did not change very much，its users did．技术的使用者改变了；二是：In some cases，however，straightforward improvements in technology turnthings around．技术进步逆转厄运。随后提到宽带的发展证明了此原因，故选[A]项。[B]项“社会因素比技术因素更重要”，[C]项“技术使用者有最终发言权”和[D]项“预言什么时候起死回生也不算晚”都无从体现。
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